Tag Archives: The Fifth Assassin

WWW Wednesday, 11-July-2018

11 Jul

Welcome to WWW Wednesday! This meme was formerly hosted by MizB at A Daily Rhythm and revived here on Taking on a World of Words. Just answer the three questions below and leave a link to your post in the comments for others to look at. No blog? No problem! Just leave a comment with your responses. Please, take some time to visit the other participants and see what others are reading. So, let’s get to it!IMG_1384-0

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Note: For users of Blogspot blogs, I’m unable to comment on your posts as a WordPress blogger unless you’ve enabled Name/URL comments. This is a known WordPress/Blogspot issue. Please consider enabling this to participate more fully in the community. 


Currently reading: I’m still slowly making my way through The Post-Birthday World by Lionel Shriver. I have a feeling it’s about to take a dark twist so I’m excited and finding more and more time to devote to reading it. I’ll for sure finish it in Europe if not before!
I started up with Dreams of Joy by Lisa See again. Thankfully I haven’t forgotten anything and I’ve been able to dive back in with no problem. I have the audiobook for another two weeks so I hope I can finish it in time!
It’s embarrassing but I’m still reading The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan. It’s hard to read a lot of a non-fiction book like this in one go. I’m doing pretty good, though, and making steady progress. I can’t wait to be done with it.
I’ve just started The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan. It’s not as long as I thought it would be but I’ll still be a couple weeks working on this one. I’m just excited to be onto another audiobook, I felt like the Meltzer one went on for too long at the end.

Recently finished: I wrapped up The Fifth Assassin by Brad Meltzer on Sunday morning. It’s the second in a series of three but I’m not sure if I’m going to continue with the series. If I do, I’ll be in no rush to get to it. I’m not even sure what the last book is called if I’m being honest. My review went up yesterday and I gave it Three out of Five Stars.
I also finished Critical Chain by Eliyahu Goldratt over the weekend. It was a good weekend of finishing books and hurriedly writing reviews of them. This one was just what I was expecting and I enjoyed Goldratt’s method of teaching business lessons through a novel. I gave this one Three out of Five Stars as well.

Reading Next: I’ll start Brainiac by Ken Jennings as soon as I can but I’m nervous about finishing it before I leave for Europe! I’ll have to return it to the library before I go. I’m hoping I can fly through it, even though it’s another non-fiction. I’m guessing it will be a lighter topic.


Leave a comment with your link and a comment (if you’re so inclined). Take a look at the other participant links in the comments and look at what others are reading.

Have any opinions on these choices?

Until next time, write on.

You can follow me on GoodreadsFacebookTwitterPinterest, and Instagram. I’m available via email at SamAStevensWriter@gmail.com. And as always, feel free to leave a comment!

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Book Review: The Fifth Assassin by Brad Meltzer (3/5)

10 Jul

I throw a thriller into the mix every once in a while, just to keep things fresh. Meltzer has been a go-to author for a while since I picked up a few autographed versions of his books at an author event a few years back. I’ve turned to audiobooks for a few of them just to save myself some reading time. They also make for good distractions while driving.

Cover image via Goodreads

The Fifth Assassin (Culper Ring #2) by Brad Meltzer

Other books by Meltzer reviewed on this blog:

The Book of Fate
The Book of Lies 
The Inner Circle (Culper Ring #1) and Book Club Reflection
Meeting Author Brad Meltzer

Summary from Goodreads:

From John Wilkes Booth to Lee Harvey Oswald, there have been more than two dozen assassination attempts on the President of the United States.

Four have been successful.

But now, Beecher White discovers a killer in Washington, D.C. who’s meticulously re-creating the crimes of these four men. Historians have branded them as four lone wolves. But what if they are wrong?

Beecher is about to discover the truth: that during the course of a hundred years, all four assassins were secretly working together. What was their purpose? For whom do they really work? And why are they planning to kill the current President?

Beecher’s about to find out. And most terrifyingly, he’s about to come face-to-face with the fifth assassin.

It’s been a few years since I read the first book in this series but I was able to pick up on things pretty quickly as I went along. I’ve read a few Meltzer books now and it always catches me off guard when people show up in more than one of his books. It makes them all run together a bit more than I’d like, but it’s also a nice touch to those who have read a lot of his books. My frustration with this one was that it felt too much like all of his book. Presidential thrillers don’t allow for too much variety because they’re going to involve a lot of politics and Secret Service and likely a good amount of presidential history. There’s not much more to it than that. These books can get a bit repetitive if you read too many in a row so I’ll probably take a break for a while.

Credibility isn’t something I look for in characters in this kind of book. The fact that the characters are unbelievable is part of their appeal. Nico isn’t a normal religious fanatic or assassin. Beecher is much more than an archivist. Something’s fishy about the small time Beecher, Marshall, and Clementine come from and none of it is believable. If it were, it wouldn’t be fun.

I didn’t really have a favorite character in this book. None of them were very likable to me. In the end, I think Marshall was my favorite, but I still didn’t care for him much. His motivation ended up being great and, without spoiling anything, he was very different from what everyone thought and ended up being a great, deep new character for this series. If I read more, it will only be to answer questions I have about Marshall and his background.

These characters were hard to relate to but I didn’t expect that out of this genre. I’ve never suspected my father’s death was faked or that there was government interference in my run-ins with old friends. Beecher’s life is a bit too fantastical to be relatable to a 20-something in the Midwest working in Automotive.

Brad Meltzer and me

I thought the trip to Camp David was pretty cool. It seemed well researched for a place no media has seen. I wonder how much of it was made it. I bought the whole thing. I’ve never thought too much about the Camp and how remote it is before. That’s really great that the President has somewhere like that to retreat to.

I’m not sure how much this book advanced the plot of the trilogy. It was good as a stand-alone but Clementine, Nico, Wallace, and Beecher didn’t change much as a result of this book. If Meltzer wanted Nico free and Marshall introduced, I think that could have been done much simpler at the beginning of a book that was going to advance the plot more. Maybe I’d have to read the third book to understand the significance of what’s happened in this one but now, I’m shrugging my shoulders a bit.

The audiobook was narrated by Scott Brick. He did a good job building tension through eventful scenes. He didn’t differentiate his voice much for characters and it threw me off a few times but over twelve disks, that was almost negligible. I don’t have too much very positive or very negative to say on this narration. It was good but not stand-out.

This genre doesn’t lend itself well to themes and morals. I guess not trusting your government could be part of it but you could just as easily derive the history of playing cards being critical to major assassinations. It seems silly to try too hard to gather a moral message from this one.

Writer’s Takeaway: Meltzer had me guessing until the end who the Knight would be and what role Marshall would play in the book. Sometimes these things can seem overly obvious in thrillers but it was disguised well here. I think this is a good trick for any writer to master because it helps build tension in a story and can make for a very exciting conclusion.

This was a good book for its genre but I wasn’t in the right mood for it. Three out of Five Stars

Until next time, write on.

You can follow me on GoodreadsFacebookTwitterPinterest, and Instagram. I’m available via email at SamAStevensWriter@gmail.com. And as always, feel free to leave a comment!

Related Posts:
Book Review – The Fifth Assassin by Brad Meltzer | Tim Busbey
Book Review: The Fifth Assassin by Brad Meltzer | Just Rochelle

 

WWW Wednesday, 4-July-2018

4 Jul

Welcome to WWW Wednesday! This meme was formerly hosted by MizB at A Daily Rhythm and revived here on Taking on a World of Words. Just answer the three questions below and leave a link to your post in the comments for others to look at. No blog? No problem! Just leave a comment with your responses. Please, take some time to visit the other participants and see what others are reading. So, let’s get to it!IMG_1384-0

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Note: For users of Blogspot blogs, I’m unable to comment on your posts as a WordPress blogger unless you’ve enabled Name/URL comments. This is a known WordPress/Blogspot issue. Please consider enabling this to participate more fully in the community. 


Currently reading: I’m a quarter of the way through The Post-Birthday World by Lionel Shriver. I’m enjoying it still, just a matter of having lunchtimes to read it. Maybe I’ll try leaving the office for lunch a bit more this week since it’s a slow one.
I’ve got Dreams of Joy by Lisa See back but I’m hoping to finish Critical Chain first. I just want to finish a darn book! We’ll see how it times up.
I’m still working on The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan which I’m embarrassed to admit. I’m trying to make more time to devote to reading it but the subject is so dense that it’s hard to read a lot at once.
I am really close to finishing The Fifth Assassin by Brad Meltzer which is encouraging. I was hoping to have this one finished this week, but it looks like I’m waiting one more week. Sigh.
I’m getting close to finishing Critical Chain by Eliyahu Goldratt as well. I think this one will be finished off within the week, hopefully, sooner so I can get back to my other audiobooks.

Recently finished: No comment.

Reading Next: I’ve been so tempted to start Brainiac by Ken Jennings every time I read four pages of Friedan and put it back down. I want a book to binge and enjoy and I’m hoping this can be it!
The audiobook is all set and ready for The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan. Just got to finish Meltzer and I’ll start it immediately.


Leave a comment with your link and a comment (if you’re so inclined). Take a look at the other participant links in the comments and look at what others are reading.

Have any opinions on these choices?

Until next time, write on.

You can follow me on GoodreadsFacebookTwitterPinterest, and Instagram. I’m available via email at SamAStevensWriter@gmail.com. And as always, feel free to leave a comment!

WWW Wednesday, 27-June-2018

27 Jun

Welcome to WWW Wednesday! This meme was formerly hosted by MizB at A Daily Rhythm and revived here on Taking on a World of Words. Just answer the three questions below and leave a link to your post in the comments for others to look at. No blog? No problem! Just leave a comment with your responses. Please, take some time to visit the other participants and see what others are reading. So, let’s get to it!IMG_1384-0

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Note: For users of Blogspot blogs, I’m unable to comment on your posts as a WordPress blogger unless you’ve enabled Name/URL comments. This is a known WordPress/Blogspot issue. Please consider enabling this to participate more fully in the community. 


Currently reading: I think I made it through one chapter of The Post-Birthday World by Lionel Shriver. I’ve been studying during lunch when I can and finally got back to it some today. I’m really enjoying this book and its unusual format so I look forward to reading more when I can.
Still waiting on the hold of Dreams of Joy by Lisa See to come back. Sigh.
I didn’t finish The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan before the book club meeting and ended up skipping it in order to study a bit more. I felt bad, but I wasn’t sure how much I’d get out of the discussion if I was only a bit over half-way through it.
With all my driving to school, I’ve made great steps forward with The Fifth Assassin by Brad Meltzer. These books are fun and exciting but I do sometimes get frustrated feeling I’m kept in the dark. Toward the end, I’m sure everything will start to come together so I’m just looking forward to that.
Critical Chain by Eliyahu Goldratt has been a good read for me so far. I don’t read many business books because I’m usually trying to escape from B-School by reading, but Goldratt makes it all seem more fun by giving his stories a plot.

Recently finished: Let’s not talk about it. Maybe next week?

Reading Next: I’m not going to start Brainiac by Ken Jennings until I finish Friedan. I have to keep telling myself that since the book is so tempting right on my bedside table…
I forgot to cancel my hold on another car audiobook so I have The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan ready to go when I finish Meltzer. I think another week or so and I’ll be able to start this one.


Leave a comment with your link and a comment (if you’re so inclined). Take a look at the other participant links in the comments and look at what others are reading.

Have any opinions on these choices?

Until next time, write on.

You can follow me on GoodreadsFacebookTwitterPinterest, and Instagram. I’m available via email at SamAStevensWriter@gmail.com. And as always, feel free to leave a comment!

WWW Wednesday, 20-June-2018

20 Jun

Welcome to WWW Wednesday! This meme was formerly hosted by MizB at A Daily Rhythm and revived here on Taking on a World of Words. Just answer the three questions below and leave a link to your post in the comments for others to look at. No blog? No problem! Just leave a comment with your responses. Please, take some time to visit the other participants and see what others are reading. So, let’s get to it!IMG_1384-0

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Note: For users of Blogspot blogs, I’m unable to comment on your posts as a WordPress blogger unless you’ve enabled Name/URL comments. This is a known WordPress/Blogspot issue. Please consider enabling this to participate more fully in the community. 


Currently reading: Almost no progress on The Post-Birthday World by Lionel Shriver this week. School ends next week and it’s in high gear now so I did a lot of textbook reading during my lunches. I hope to return to it soon.
I am very disappointed to say that I lost my hold on Dreams of Joy by Lisa See! I put a hold on it to get it back but it might be a bit before I’m able to jump back into this one.
I am starting to think I won’t finish The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan before my book club meeting. I’m out of free time until my class ends so I’m reading about ten pages a night, not enough to help me finish. Seeing as the meeting is the day before my final exam, I might skip it entirely.
I’ve made great progress in The Fifth Assassin by Brad Meltzer. I think that’s solid proof of how seldom I’m home! I’m about halfway through the book now and I should easily finish before I leave for Europe. I don’t want a lingering audiobook while I’m gone.
I started another eaudiobook while I wait for Joy to come back. I started Critical Chain by Eliyahu Goldratt. I’m enjoying it so far and it’s very relevant to the business class I’m taking. It’s not too long so I should wrap it up in a week or two.

Recently finished: Nothing! I’m moving slowly now but I’m optimistic that it will pick up soon. It has to, right?

Reading Next: I’m very tempted to pick up Brainiac by Ken Jennings since Mystique is dragging so much for me. This one looks fun and full of trivia facts. That seems so far off now…


Leave a comment with your link and a comment (if you’re so inclined). Take a look at the other participant links in the comments and look at what others are reading.

Have any opinions on these choices?

Until next time, write on.

You can follow me on GoodreadsFacebookTwitterPinterest, and Instagram. I’m available via email at SamAStevensWriter@gmail.com. And as always, feel free to leave a comment!

WWW Wednesday, 13-June-2018

13 Jun

Welcome to WWW Wednesday! This meme was formerly hosted by MizB at A Daily Rhythm and revived here on Taking on a World of Words. Just answer the three questions below and leave a link to your post in the comments for others to look at. No blog? No problem! Just leave a comment with your responses. Please, take some time to visit the other participants and see what others are reading. So, let’s get to it!IMG_1384-0

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Note: For users of Blogspot blogs, I’m unable to comment on your posts as a WordPress blogger unless you’ve enabled Name/URL comments. This is a known WordPress/Blogspot issue. Please consider enabling this to participate more fully in the community. 


Currently reading: I made better progress with The Post-Birthday World by Lionel Shriver than I expected to, which was a welcome surprise. I figured out what the structure of the book is and I’m really intrigued to keep read it and see what happens!
I got a few runs in and made some decent progress on Dreams of Joy by Lisa See. I’ve enjoyed See’s writing in the past and this book doesn’t disappoint and I’m glad I’ve gotten to read it!
I’m afraid my progress has slowed with The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan. I’m not as interested in it as I wish I were and it’s made me read less at night and find other things to do with free time during the days. I’m pushing just to finish in time for book club now.
I started a new audiobook in my car but not the one I thought I would. I’m reading The Fifth Assassin by Brad Meltzer. It’s the second in a series I started a few years ago (I’m seeing a trend) and I remember the previous book well enough but it’s getting mixed up with other Meltzer books to me. I’ll sort it out in time, haha.

Recently finished: I finished A Walk In the Woods by Bill Bryson late last week and I want to go hiking so badly now! It was a fun read and I meant to pick the movie up at the library and totally forgot. Darn! I hope I can watch this one soon, it seems like it would be a pretty funny film.

I posted my review of Paul Beatty’s The Sellout on Thursday and my book club reflection of it on Monday. It wasn’t a favorite of mine or my book club. Unpopular Opinion Alert!

Reading Next: No change on Brainiac by Ken Jennings. I’ve already had to renew it and I haven’t cracked it open. I really hope I can get to it soon!


Leave a comment with your link and a comment (if you’re so inclined). Take a look at the other participant links in the comments and look at what others are reading.

Have any opinions on these choices?

Until next time, write on.

You can follow me on GoodreadsFacebookTwitterPinterest, and Instagram. I’m available via email at SamAStevensWriter@gmail.com. And as always, feel free to leave a comment!